The present disclosure relates generally to thermoplastic energy absorbing elements that can be used in a vehicle to reduce injuries and/or minimize damage to the vehicle.
Increased importance has been placed recently on methods for minimizing the amount of injury suffered by pedestrians in an accident as well as for mitigating vehicle damageability. Globally, different regulatory committees have been established to assess automotive, pedestrian, and occupant performance during impact. Depending on the overall performance, vehicles are assigned a cumulative safety rating. Each and every component of the vehicle needs to satisfy specific impact criteria in order to ensure a good overall rating for the vehicle. Therefore, the various governmental regulatory bodies, the automotive industry, as well as the original equipment manufacturers (OEM's) are all continually seeking economic solutions to improve the overall safety rating of vehicles.
Due to their location at the front and/or the corners of the vehicle, headlamps have an important function in the passive safety of vehicles, particularly with respect to pedestrians. The headlamps of the vehicle are one of the locations most contacted by a pedestrian in an impact between the pedestrian and the vehicle. Similarly, headlamps are primary locations damaged in an impact with another vehicle. Several designs have been proposed for minimizing pedestrian injury during an impact, and for simultaneously minimizing damage to the headlamps or headlights themselves. Some of these designs require significant structural modifications to the headlamp which also increase its volume (e.g. necessary packaging space), weight, and/or cost. Other designs require structural modification to the chassis surrounding the headlamp area.
Generally, headlamps are provided as a single assembly, comprising a lens, housing, a light source, a bezel, and a reflector. As a result, even under circumstances where very limited damage to any component of the headlamp assembly occurs, the entire assembly may have to be replaced with a new one. This results in a high replacement or maintenance cost. As a result, there is a need to design a headlamp incorporating energy absorption elements that will deform and absorb kinetic impact energy to both minimize pedestrian injury, and mitigate vehicle damageability, thereby ensuring good vehicle safety rating.
In addition, there is also a need to reduce replacement and maintenance costs, particularly costs associated with low impact energy incidents. A product and/or method that reduces or eliminates damage to a component of an impacted vehicle, and which thereby reduces the need to replace that component, are therefore desired.